007 Bloodstone video review

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Written version

007 Bloodstone review

007 Bloodstone for me has always been one of those games I’m sure we all have that I always liked but managed to slip under most people radars.

007 Bloodstone was a James bond game released back in 2010, made by the now defunct Bizarre creations and published by Activision, it was released for the 360, PS3 and PC, we’re watching the PC version now and while Bloodstone got average review and probably didn’t sell well, it’s a game that found a soft spot for me.

Presentation

The story of Bloodstone isn’t anything special and is pretty paint-by-numbers; it deals with James being played by Daniel Craig himself on the track of bioweapons, it’s a perfectly forgettable plot that will have you meeting up with a whole bunch of perfectly forgettable people, the writing and voice acting runs from bad to average despite Daniel Craig and Judy Dench voicing their characters so don’t expect the story to interest you and most likely none of the characters or things going on in the world will get you attention or be remember when you put the game down, there are quite a few great action pieces though, and sections like chasing a train through an exploding facility and onto a frozen lake with a chopper chasing you feels very Bond and is quite memorable, there is also a slower section where you walk around a building scanning finger prints and hacking doors, while this isn’t terribly exciting I do love when games provide slower non-combat sections to provide some variety.

Graphics and aesthetics are again pretty average, in-game the game looks fine, it looks clean if a little simple and animations are slick and there is no aesthetic style to add anything else, the levels have some potential, things like a yatch, an aquarium and the roof tops of shanghai could have looked cool but often look drab and brown. But it’s really the cut-scenes where the graphics show their lack of quality, when up close you can see the shadows and detail and defiantly sub-par animation and for whatever the reason the pre-rendered cut-scenes look worse than the in-game cuts-scenes.

Gameplay

Ok so far it’s been pretty down but gameplay is where thinks start to pick up a little bit for me, first thing is the gun play, and honestly it’s below average, like almost every other TPS you can pick up gun fire them from the hip or aim for tighter shooting you can also aim from cover and blind fire, while this is pretty standard it just doesn’t feel very good, guns just have no wait and have little to no recoil, burst firing doesn’t seem to improve accuracy much so fire doesn’t really require any skill past aiming in the general direction of a bad guy and holding the trigger until he’s stopped moving, it’s servable but no-where as good as gears of war, max payne 3 or even Mass effect or uncharted.

Of course sometime enemies might get a little closer than you would like, in which case you can run towards then and take then down with a finishing move which some really nice animations are showing Bond take enemies out the old fashioned way and honestly the brutal punches and kicks are a lot more satisfying then the lack-lustre gun play.

One interesting thing that Bloodstone does over most in its genre is its mark and execute like system, see when you take down someone with a melee attack you unlock a take down, with this take down you can hold down a button the game will slow down and Bond will automatically line up a insta-killing headshot allowing you to pull the trigger for what is an instant kill, you can switch between bad guys and if you don’t use them straight away you can store up three take downs to quickly lower the population of the room you’re in.

You may think that having bad shooting mechanics in a shooter would pretty much make the entire game un-enjoyable but luckily Bloodstone gives you an alternative to just cover shooting your way through bad guys, every level of the games with give you the option to try and take down your enemies a little more quietly, to me Bloodstone shines as a stealth game, stealth is actually pretty simple but is fun, is mostly boils down to hiding by in cover and waiting for baddies to come by you at which point you can pull of a finishing move to make Bond punch and suffocate enemies into unconsciousness and pull them behind cover, if you like me enjoy the challenge of trying to take down enemies with anyone else knowing you should defiantly find enjoyment in this game, the stealth isn’t on the level of Splinter cell or hitman but it works and is fun to use, it’s also not a huge challenge to take down a room silently, unlike games that are designed around stealth you will find Bloodstone lacking in ways to stealth around, you don’t shoot out lights, you can’t drag bodies into corners, and there are no secret passages or vents to sneak past enemies, the only way that stealth can be done is by hiding behind cover and watching the bad guys patrol path, so most of your stealth come from waiting in cover for a guy to walk past you or sneaking up to them and taking them down while the other guys aren’t looking, While this simplicity may turn you off it really shouldn’t, it’s simple but fun, for a stealth fan it probably won’t rank in you top stealth games but is still a fun challenge to play through.

The last aspect of Bloodstones gameplay is the driving sequences; these are again more than most shooters would give you, developer Bizarre creations are more well known for their driving games so as you would expect these sequences are quite excellent, the vehicles have great weight to them and handle really well, the driving always involves you chasing down a criminal of some sort and feature a lot of smashing though things and generally causing a lot of damage with you chasing a tip truck through the streets of shanghai being a stand out in this respect.

Finally there is a multiplayer but it’s not even worth considering, I played it a while ago and it’s pretty much just all shooting in very generic levels and if you were to go online now you would be lucky to find enough people to play a good online game with.

The Bottom line

On the whole, I enjoyed Bloodstone I played it when it was released and when I picked it up again a few weeks ago I still found it fun to play through, that’s bloodstones strength, it’s not fantastic but is fun to play, it the kind of game I could start up and play every once in a while and just play through a level, Bloodstone’s story, visuals and gunplay are boring and uninspired, and the stealth is simple, but I can’t help but enjoy my time playing through bloodstone, the games gives a lot more variety then most AA shooters will by giving you options to shoot or stealth your way through the levels as well as an interesting mark and execute system and driving segments. You will get the most out of the game if you play it as a stealth games as it falls apart around the gun play, but if you are a stealth fan I recommend you consider playing 007 Bloodstone as you’re sure to get some simple fun out of what I consider to be this underrated game.